Plan Promotions for the Spring Now
Happy busy season! While your facilities are full and business is booming, it’s important that you think of the future. Right now you need to be preparing revenue-building promotions that can take your facility to the next level, even in the slow season. A rule of thumb to follow all year round – always plan quarterly. Planning and promoting three months in advance is a perfect way to stay one step ahead and beat out competitors to get your clients’ attention.
What is important to keep in mind with any promotion you run, whether it is for memberships, combines, or camps – always maintain a sense of urgency. How many times have you seen “Only six spots left!” on promotional materials? There’s a reason you see everywhere. It works! Make your offer desirable to your current or potential clients, but don’t let them think it will always be there.
The spring and summer are go-time for baseball and softball, so most of those clients will see you again in the fall. However, you don’t want to miss all of the other athletes out there that want to utilize their off-seasons to improve. If your facility offers sports performance, now is time to expand to other audiences, two of the biggest being football and soccer athletes.
In my past experience owning DNA Sports Center, there were a few strong promotions we ran for the spring and summer that kept our facility busy, even on the most beautiful days. We ALWAYS ran a spring combine program in May to help athletes assess and improve their skills before entering tryouts, showcases, and important recruitment seasons. You hear May and think “oh I have plenty of time” but I am here to tell you differently. Begin promoting now! Run early-bird specials and get those athletes committed before another program can pull them in. Keep that urgency and remind your audience of the limited availability in the combine so they sign up early and confirm they have a spot.
Do the same with your spring and summer camps. Secure your instructor, figure out the schedule, and promote! Another benefit of planning early – if one camp fills up and you have more interest than you thought, plan another camp! You now have the time to adjust your plans to maximize your profits.
Camps and combines are fantastic opportunities to increase revenue in the slow season and bring in new clients, but you will want to make sure you keep a recurring income. Membership drives are a tactic I utilized every year to make sure DNA Sports Center had a consistent cash flow and a full facility during the spring and summer seasons. Offer discounted memberships or camp/combine membership priority to incentivize new clients to sign up. You need to create a sense of urgency here too. Make the offer run for a limited time, or restrict the deal to 10 memberships and continue to include that in your promotion.
The three key you should take away from this are:
- Begin planning AND promoting three months in advance
- Maintain a sense of urgency in ALL promotions
- Keep a source of recurring income during the office season.
Want to know how to properly promote the ideas I have given you above? I have you covered! Check out my blog post on how to market your facility promotions here.
Have more questions? Reach out to us via email at contact@esoftplanner.com to schedule a consultation with me.
